This invention relates to pyridines and pyrimidines substituted at the 4-position with a thioether and hydroxy containing sidechain, the corresponding methyl ether and carboxylic acid ester derivatives thereof, and the acid addition salts of said alcohols, methyl ethers and esters.
A number of compounds have been known in the art to be useful as antiinflammatory agents, for example the corticosteroids, phenylbutazone, indomethacin, piroxicam and other benzothiazine dioxides (Lombardino, U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,584), 2-oxo-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran-3-carboxamides (Kadin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,463), and substituted diarylimidazoles (Lombardino, U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,475). Accordingly these compounds have therapeutic value in the treatment of arthritic and other inflammatory conditions. Such conditions have also been treated by administration of immunoregulatory agents, such as levamisole, as described, for example, in Arthritis and Rheumatism, 20, 1445 (1977) and Lancet, 1, 393 (1976). In efforts to find new and improved therapeutic agents for the treatment of these conditions, it has now been found that the novel pyridines and pyrimidines of the present invention are active either as antiinflammatory agents or as regulants of the immune response in mammals, and in many cases, possess both types of activity. Because these activities are complementary, the latter are of particular value in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions where relief of the inflammation and regulation of the immune response is desired.
The compounds of the present invention are novel. Isomeric 3-(2-hydroxyethylthiomethyl)pyridine has been reported in the literature [Vejdelek et al., Chem. Listy. 47, 49 (1953); see Chem. Abstr. 49, 336f (1955)]; no pharmacological activity, however, is reported for this compound.